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gødspeed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
228
1
Oregon
I recently decided to make my Bootcamp (Windows 7) partition smaller, using Paragon Camptune X. This appears to have worked, as my Mac OS X partition gained 25GB, and my Windows partition appears to have lost 25GB. However, I can no longer boot into Windows.

When I press Option & enter my firmware password, I still see all three options: OS X, Windows, and Recovery 10.10.

However, if I select Windows, I get a rapid succession of command line text (much too fast to read), followed by this text:

Code:
drive 0x80 (LBA): C/H/S=1023/16/63, Sector Count/Size=1031184/512

Options if your HDD is larger than 1TB:
* Move your boot files to a smaller partition at the start of the HDD.
* Format the HDD and allow Windows to create a 100MB boot partition.
* Shrink and move your partitions with GParted.

Press any key to read more...
---

Options if you have an OEM/Recovery partition:
* Format the whole HDD with Active@ Kill Disk.
* If possible use EasyBCD to relocate the boot files.

Tools to use:
* EasyBCD to move your boot files.
* Active@ Kill Disk (ISO) to format.
* GParted to resize, move & create partitions.

How to boot back into Windows:
* Boot from your Windows DVD and select "Repair your computer"
* Select Command Prompt
* Enter "bootsect /nt60 SYS /force" or "bootsect /nt60 ALL /force"
* Reboot

Press any key to enter command line...

This is followed by a Grub command line. The boot command won't work, as the kernel isn't loaded of course.

I am fairly knowledgeable with computers, but bootloaders are an area where I know next to nothing. I know that my Windows partition is perfectly in tact, as I can browse the partition from Mac OS X using Paragon NTFS. However, my bootloader is apparently broken, and being as that I have a rMBP without a DVD drive (I used an ISO to install Windows), I'm not sure how to proceed. Any help would be hugely appreciated.
 
Last edited:

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,306
You probably didn't back it up via WinClone before making changes to partition.

Did you try to boot into the windows setup ISO/disk and repair the partition or "upgrade" to reinstall the OS?
 

gødspeed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
228
1
Oregon
I've been looking for a way to boot off of the ISO, and am not having much luck. This tutorial looks good:
http://borgstrom.ca/2010/10/14/os-x-bootable-usb.html

But, it contains this warning:
NOTE: Intel Based Apple Machines contain an EFI BIOS that CANNOT boot USB keys. You will not be able to put your OS X .iso file onto a USB key and install it onto an Apple laptop (MacBook Pro/Air/etc).

So how can I do it?
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,306
That article is 4 years old, so perhaps times of changed, since Macs no longer have optical drives. Clearly booting up on a thumb drive is possible.
 

gødspeed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
228
1
Oregon
Alright, I was able to create a bootable USB using Bootcamp Assistant. However, when the Windows installer boots up I have no cursor and I can't use the keyboard either. Is there any way to fix my boot loader without booting into a Windows USB? Like by using rEFIt, or somehow cloning the windows partition into a new bootable partition from within Mac OS?
 
Last edited:

doynton

macrumors 6502
Oct 19, 2014
299
17
I had the same issue as you when I created another partition from within windows. The mbr and gpt partitions got out of sync and windows stopped booting on the flashing cursor. I use rEFInd but it would not repair it.

I used the OSX version of gdisk from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/files/gptfdisk/0.8.9/gdisk-binaries/ to reset the partition tables (that is align the gpt with the mbr). This allowed windows to boot.

Details of gdisk are here: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

I had to completely delete the partition tables and recreate them manually so you probably want some alternative way of booting in case of error as you could lose OSX as well.
 

gødspeed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
228
1
Oregon
I had the same issue as you when I created another partition from within windows. The mbr and gpt partitions got out of sync and windows stopped booting on the flashing cursor. I use rEFInd but it would not repair it.

I used the OSX version of gdisk from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/files/gptfdisk/0.8.9/gdisk-binaries/ to reset the partition tables (that is align the gpt with the mbr). This allowed windows to boot.

Details of gdisk are here: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

I had to completely delete the partition tables and recreate them manually so you probably want some alternative way of booting in case of error as you could lose OSX as well.

Thanks for the response. This looks terrifying. I remember completely ruining my old MBP when I messed around with partition tables trying to get a triple-boot setup working. That took me days to repair. I've decided to ditch my Bootcamp partition, as its main purpose was gaming which is killing my productivity.
 

doynton

macrumors 6502
Oct 19, 2014
299
17
Thanks for the response. This looks terrifying. I remember completely ruining my old MBP when I messed around with partition tables trying to get a triple-boot setup working. That took me days to repair. I've decided to ditch my Bootcamp partition, as its main purpose was gaming which is killing my productivity.
You could try a VM - your specs look good enough :)
 
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